If you were to poll 100 SEO masters and ask them what the single most important factor in ranking on Google was, you’d probably get a lot of people pointing to links. Sure, you need content to support your links, and you need a well-designed site to support the content, but the links are where it’s at. That’s why there are people out there dedicating their careers to learning ways to build links.
Of course, it’s a shady world out there. Links, because of their importance, have been the focal point of an ongoing war for nearly 20 years. Black hat SEOs find ways to build links artificially and Google’s tactical drone strikes – or, rather, algorithm updates – block those strategies. The cycle has gone round so many times that it’s difficult to know what’s a valid technique any longer.
Taking advantage of this are the low quality link builders, people who submit thousands or tens of thousands of links with the full knowledge that you don’t know what they’re dong or why it’s bad, and that they can get away with it long enough to get a few paydays in. Hell, some of those links will even work, but the majority will be valueless or potentially detrimental. These low quality link builders are setting up time bombs for your site.
To avoid having your site detonate on you at some unspecified time in the future, you should carefully vet any potential link builder or marketer you hire. Here are some ways you can filter out the chaff.
Preparation
If you like, for the interview process, you can create a hypothetical site. You could also use your own, if you prefer. The idea is to base some specific questions around a given scenario. More importantly, the idea is to have the correct answers on hand yourself. You don’t want to give out an exam with no answer key, after all.
Questions
These are a series of questions and explanations for you to adapt to your situation and ask.
1: Who will do the actual link building?
A good link builder does the work himself, or works with a close team you can meet and talk to. You want to avoid any link builder who is being evasive about this; they have something to hide. You don’t want to find out six months down the line that the person actually doing the work has disappeared and the company you’ve been paying is just a middleman. As a middleman, they have no ability to assist you when issues crop up.
Questions2: How would you use my link purchasing budget?
If you bring up the idea of buying links, you need to carefully analyze what the answer may be. You don’t want them to talk about paying for links in directories or buying guest posts. You can accept talk about paying for opportunities or their services. The influence of money in search is a tricky game of positioning, unfortunately.
3: How does competitive analysis change your strategy?
Your link builder should be aware of the competition as much as they are aware of you. A niche with steep competition will require some dedication to rank. At the same time, your link builder should be looking for under-utilized niches you can use to invade enemy territory, so to speak.
4: How deeply do you analyze niches and verticals?
This can be an alternative to the previous question, looking for a similar answer. Different niches have different competition and can benefit from different strategies. Some niches, for example, are much easier to build .edu links in, while others would have a hard time finding one.
5: Will you work to remove past bad links?
It’s possible that you’ve been the victim of a negative SEO attack, effective or otherwise. It’s also possible that you or a former link builder used black hat techniques in the past. Your new link builder should audit and clean up your current link profile, to position you as best they possibly can for the value of new links to take effect.
6: How will you adapt if Google kills your current strategy?
Google has been known to change their minds and destroy techniques that have formerly been okayed, such as guest posting. Your link builder should own up to the possibility that their techniques might be canned, and if so, what they can do about it.
7: Will you analyze my site for link targets?
Your site as it stands now should have at least a moderate amount of content that works as the destination for links. Your link builder should be able to audit your site looking for link targets, and they should be able to give you suggestions for more content that will work to develop better links.
8: What are the costs of your service?
What-are-the-costs-of-your-service
Okay, so this is an obvious question, but it needs to be asked. Watch out for anyone who charges by the link or charges by the batch; you should be paying for a service, not a product.
9: Do you automate any of your link building?
This question is a bit of a trap. On one hand, no, your link builder should not use any automation to assist with their link building. They should be putting their people skills to use marketing towards direct targets. On the other hand, it doesn’t hurt to automate sending out marketing messages composed by hand.
10: Do you differentiate between links?
There are essentially three purposes a link can serve; links that help your search ranking, links that build traffic and links that manage your reputation. Each type of link should be treated in its own way.
11: Do you have examples of successful link queries?
A lot of what a link builder does is sending out emails to various websites and companies asking about a link position on the target site. Your link builder should have a process they use to contact these companies, which very likely should include a query message. Make sure it doesn’t look like something more at home in your spam box than your inbox.
12: Do you have a satisfied reference I can contact?
Good artists have portfolios. Your link builder should have past clients willing to vouch for them. Without that, you run the risk of hiring a bad company or a front face for a black hat link builder.
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If you were to poll 100 SEO masters and ask them what the single most important factor in ranking on Google was, you’d probably get a lot of people pointing to links. Sure, you need content to support your links, and you need a well-designed site to support the content, but the links are where it’s at. That’s why there are people out there dedicating their careers to learning ways to build links.
Of course, it’s a shady world out there. Links, because of their importance, have been the focal point of an ongoing war for nearly 20 years. Black hat SEOs find ways to build links artificially and Google’s tactical drone strikes – or, rather, algorithm updates – block those strategies. The cycle has gone round so many times that it’s difficult to know what’s a valid technique any longer.
Taking advantage of this are the low quality link builders, people who submit thousands or tens of thousands of links with the full knowledge that you don’t know what they’re dong or why it’s bad, and that they can get away with it long enough to get a few paydays in. Hell, some of those links will even work, but the majority will be valueless or potentially detrimental. These low quality link builders are setting up time bombs for your site.
To avoid having your site detonate on you at some unspecified time in the future, you should carefully vet any potential link builder or marketer you hire. Here are some ways you can filter out the chaff.
Preparation
If you like, for the interview process, you can create a hypothetical site. You could also use your own, if you prefer. The idea is to base some specific questions around a given scenario. More importantly, the idea is to have the correct answers on hand yourself. You don’t want to give out an exam with no answer key, after all.
Questions
These are a series of questions and explanations for you to adapt to your situation and ask.
1: Who will do the actual link building?
A good link builder does the work himself, or works with a close team you can meet and talk to. You want to avoid any link builder who is being evasive about this; they have something to hide. You don’t want to find out six months down the line that the person actually doing the work has disappeared and the company you’ve been paying is just a middleman. As a middleman, they have no ability to assist you when issues crop up.
Sorular2: How would you use my link purchasing budget?
If you bring up the idea of buying links, you need to carefully analyze what the answer may be. You don’t want them to talk about paying for links in directories or buying guest posts. You can accept talk about paying for opportunities or their services. The influence of money in search is a tricky game of positioning, unfortunately.
3: How does competitive analysis change your strategy?
Your link builder should be aware of the competition as much as they are aware of you. A niche with steep competition will require some dedication to rank. At the same time, your link builder should be looking for under-utilized niches you can use to invade enemy territory, so to speak.
4: How deeply do you analyze niches and verticals?
This can be an alternative to the previous question, looking for a similar answer. Different niches have different competition and can benefit from different strategies. Some niches, for example, are much easier to build .edu links in, while others would have a hard time finding one.
5: Will you work to remove past bad links?
It’s possible that you’ve been the victim of a negative SEO attack, effective or otherwise. It’s also possible that you or a former link builder used black hat techniques in the past. Your new link builder should audit and clean up your current link profile, to position you as best they possibly can for the value of new links to take effect.
6: How will you adapt if Google kills your current strategy?
Google has been known to change their minds and destroy techniques that have formerly been okayed, such as guest posting. Your link builder should own up to the possibility that their techniques might be canned, and if so, what they can do about it.
7: Will you analyze my site for link targets?
Your site as it stands now should have at least a moderate amount of content that works as the destination for links. Your link builder should be able to audit your site looking for link targets, and they should be able to give you suggestions for more content that will work to develop better links.
8: What are the costs of your service?
Hizmetinizin ne-maliyeti-masrafları
Okay, so this is an obvious question, but it needs to be asked. Watch out for anyone who charges by the link or charges by the batch; you should be paying for a service, not a product.
9: Do you automate any of your link building?
Bu soru biraz tuzaktır. Bir yandan, hayır, bağlantı oluşturucunuz bağlantı kurma konusunda yardımcı olması için herhangi bir otomasyon kullanmamalıdır. Onlar insanlar koyarak gereken doğrudan hedeflere yönelik pazarlama kullanmak için becerilerini . Öte yandan, elle oluşturulan pazarlama mesajlarının gönderilmesinin otomatikleştirilmesi zarar görmüyor.
10: Bağlantılar arasında fark var mı?
Aslında bir bağın hizmet edebileceği üç amaç vardır; Arama sıralamanıza yardımcı olan bağlantılar, trafik oluşturan bağlantılar ve itibarınızı yöneten bağlantılar. Her bağlantı türü kendi yollarıyla ele alınmalıdır.
11: Başarılı bağlantı sorgularına örnekleriniz var mı?
Bir bağlantı kurucunun yaptığı şeylerin birçoğu, hedef sitede bir bağlantı konumu hakkında bilgi isteyen çeşitli web sitelerine ve şirketlere e-postalar göndermektir. Bağlantı oluşturucunuzun, bu şirketlerle iletişim kurmak için kullandığı, büyük olasılıkla bir sorgu mesajı içermesi gereken bir süreç olmalıdır. Spam kutunuzda, gelen kutunuzdan daha fazla bir şey gibi görünmemesine dikkat edin.
12: Temast edebileceğim memnun bir referans var mı?
İyi sanatçıların portföyleri var. Bağlantı oluşturucunuzun geçmiş müşterileri için kefil olmaya razı olması gerekir. O olmadan, siyah bir şapka bağlantı kurucu için kötü bir şirket veya bir ön yüz işe alma riski taşırsınız.